Natasha Lomas
Writer
The Latest from Natasha Lomas
Facebook’s dodgy defaults face more scrutiny in Europe
Italy’s Competition and Markets Authority has launched proceedings against Facebook for failing to fully inform users about the commercial uses it makes of their data. At the same time, a German
London’s Met Police switches on live facial recognition, flying in face of human rights concerns
While EU lawmakers are mulling a temporary ban on the use of facial recognition to safeguard individuals’ rights, as part of a risk-focused plan to regulate AI, London’s Met Police has tod
Meet the B2B videoconferencing startup that’s gone crazy for online dating
Founder Andreas Kröpfl has spent almost a decade hard-grafting in the B2B unified communications space, building a videoconferencing business with a patented single-stream system and a claim of no &#
Twitter DMs now have emoji reactions
Twitter is pouring a little more fuel on the messaging fire. It has added a heart+ button to its direct messaging interface, which lets users shortcut to a pop-up menu of seven emoji reactions so they
Google’s latest user-hostile design change makes ads and search results look identical
Did you notice a recent change to how Google search results are displayed on the desktop? I noticed something last week — thinking there must be some kind of weird bug messing up the browserR
UK watchdog sets out ‘age appropriate’ design code for online services to keep kids’ privacy safe
The UK’s data protection watchdog has today published a set of design standards for Internet services which are intended to help protect the privacy and safety of children online. The Informatio
Adblock Plus’s Till Faida on the shifting shape of ad blocking
Publishers hate ad blockers, but millions of internet users embrace them — and many browsers even bake it in as a feature, including Google’s own Chrome. At the same time, growing numbers of p
Glovo exits the Middle East and drops two LatAm markets in latest food delivery crunch
The new year isn’t even a month old and the food delivery crunch is already taking big bites. Spain’s Glovo has today announced it’s exiting four markets — which it says is par
Google’s Sundar Pichai doesn’t want you to be clear-eyed about AI’s dangers
Alphabet and Google CEO, Sundar Pichai, is the latest tech giant kingpin to make a public call for AI to be regulated while simultaneously encouraging lawmakers towards a dilute enabling framework tha
EU lawmakers are eyeing risk-based rules for AI, per leaked white paper
The European Commission is considering a temporary ban on the use of facial recognition technology, according to a draft proposal for regulating artificial intelligence obtained by Euroactiv. Creating
LocalGlobe partner Julia Hawkins discusses femtech’s risks and rewards
London-based seed fund LocalGlobe is incredibly active at the early-stage end of the startup pipeline with a broad focus across multiple sectors and areas, including health. We interviewed partner Jul
Privacy experts slam UK’s ‘disastrous’ failure to tackle unlawful adtech
The UK’s data protection regulator has been slammed by privacy experts for once again failing to take enforcement action over systematic breaches of the law linked to behaviorally targeted ads &
Mass surveillance for national security does conflict with EU privacy rights, court advisor suggests
Mass surveillance regimes in the UK, Belgium and France which require bulk collection of digital data for a national security purpose may be at least partially in breach of fundamental privacy rights
Dating and fertility apps among those snitching to ‘out of control’ ad tech, report finds
The latest report to warn that surveillance capitalism is out of control — and “free” digital services can in fact be very costly to people’s privacy and rights — comes
Travel aggregator Omio hops over the pond to launch in North America
Travel aggregator Omio, which operates a multimodal transport planning and booking platform for intercity and long distance tips, has hopped over the pond to launch in North America — its first
Cookie consent tools are being used to undermine EU privacy rules, study suggests
Most cookie consent pop-ups served to internet users in the European Union — ostensibly seeking permission to track people’s web activity — are likely to be flouting regional privacy
DuckDuckGo still critical of Google’s EU Android choice screen auction, after wining a universal slot
Google has announced which search engines have won an auction process it has devised for an Android “choice screen” — as its response to an antitrust intervention by the region’
Facebook won’t ban political ads, prefers to keep screwing democracy
It’s 2020 — a key election year in the U.S. — and Facebook is doubling down on its policy of letting people pay it to fuck around with democracy. Despite trenchant criticism —
Pro-privacy search engine Qwant announces more exec changes — to ‘switch focus to monetization’
More changes have been announced in the senior leadership of French pro-privacy search engine Qwant. President and co-founder Eric Leandri (pictured above) will be moving from an operational to a stra
Will online privacy make a comeback in 2020?
Last year was a landmark for online privacy in many ways, with something of a consensus emerging that consumers deserve protection from the companies that sell their attention and behavior for profit.